For a book both the NY Times and Washington Post called "Provocative", I was not expecting it to be quite so dry. So-and-so appointed so-and-so to the court; it became more conservative and they ruled this way in the case of Mr. someone vs Mr. Otherguy. It wasn't until the last quarter of the book that Burns started to incorporate some actual analysis and his own thoughts into the writing. Coincidence that the most interesting and thoughtful part of the book covers the 30 years or so that he's been alive? I think not. If he had just focused on recent events using history as an example to back it up when needed, I think this actually would have been a good book.
I did learn quite a bit, but I thought it was very unfriendly for "casual fans" and really geared towards history buffs who can recite the presidential order in their sleep.
Here are some things I would have appreciated:
1) A simple who is on the court overview at the beginning of each chapter.
2) Sidebars or boxes to explain the cases he references. How nice that they ruled in favor of Madison, now please explain who/what Madison is and what the case was about so that I can better understand the impact of the decision. Seriously, I needed google open at all times when reading.
3) Pictures of the justices, fun facts, really anything to break up the seemingly endless block of tiny text on each page.
I would recommend this book if you have a strong interest in the supreme court, can list the presidents in chronological order, and know all the major decisions by heart; or at a bare minimum, have a strong interest in history and politics. Everyone else, I suggest waiting for the children's edition...
I did learn quite a bit, but I thought it was very unfriendly for "casual fans" and really geared towards history buffs who can recite the presidential order in their sleep.
Here are some things I would have appreciated:
1) A simple who is on the court overview at the beginning of each chapter.
2) Sidebars or boxes to explain the cases he references. How nice that they ruled in favor of Madison, now please explain who/what Madison is and what the case was about so that I can better understand the impact of the decision. Seriously, I needed google open at all times when reading.
3) Pictures of the justices, fun facts, really anything to break up the seemingly endless block of tiny text on each page.
I would recommend this book if you have a strong interest in the supreme court, can list the presidents in chronological order, and know all the major decisions by heart; or at a bare minimum, have a strong interest in history and politics. Everyone else, I suggest waiting for the children's edition...
This book sounds truly terrible. I haven't read it and likely never will, but it sounds like the section on the past 30 years was interesting because that's about when the Rehnquist court started up. And apparently, Burns really really dislikes the shift of the court starting with Rehnquist and continuing on with the current Roberts court. So, it probably got interesting once he got fired up about how terrible the Supreme Court is today. But, yes, the only thing that sounds worse than reading Burns discussing the cases is reading the cases themselves (trust me: I know haha).
ReplyDeleteI'd hate to recommend another Supreme Court book that you might just absolutely hate, but I really liked Jeffrey Toobin's "The Nine." I think it has the personal anecdotes and facts that Burns lacked, along with the general message about the Supreme Court's shift towards the right of the political spectrum. Supposedly Toobin got some of the justices to blab to him about the others, so he got (and we get to enjoy) an extremely rare insider's peek. So, yeah, I liked it, but would you trust someone who has to think about The Law a lot? Haha, perhaps not:
http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Inside-Secret-World-Supreme/dp/1400096790/ref=pd_sim_b_2
And while there are millions and millions of more interesting things to talk about, if you ever do want to chat about Marbury v Madison, I'm more than happy to talk about it. I won't even get mad if you fall asleep, I promise.
-B